DISH Network got lucky in the early hours of Wednesday after a successful launch of its EchoStar XI broadcast satellite from Boeing’s Sea Launch platform in the Pacific.
DISH, the second-largest U.S. satellite TV operator, needs to roll out more HD channels to be able to compete with larger rival DIRECTV, as well as cable and phone companies’ video services, explains Reuters.
Their HD plans were set back in March when a satellite launch by SES Americom (AMC-14) failed to reach its intended orbit on board a Russian Proton Breeze-M launch vehicle. The SES Americom satellite was entirely contracted by DISH sister company EchoStar.
The 20-kW direct broadcast satellite has deployed its solar arrays and is performing post-launch maneuvers on schedule. Its final destination: 110 degrees West longitude. EchoStar XI is the fourth Space Systems/Loral-built satellite to be launched this year and the fifth satellite that SS/L has provided to DISH Network.
DISH said earlier this month it would add another 17 national HD channels bringing its total to 100 ahead of its original year-end target. DIRECTV has said it will have 150 HD channels by the year-end.
The satellite operators are aggressively pushing HD as a way of differentiating themselves from cable operators, who are also launching more HD channels at a rapid pace but are on average still behind the satellite operators.
In related news, the Proton Breeze M rocket is slated to return to flight Aug. 14 carrying the Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite, after a failure investigation board led by International Launch Services (ILS).
The Proton M has been down since an anomaly on March 15 left the SES Americom AMC-14 (Echostar’s DBS) spacecraft stranded in the wrong orbit. In April, the Russian State Commission attributed the failure to a ruptured exhaust gas conduit.
The Inmarsat-4 (I-4) satellites are among the largest and most sophisticated commercial communication satellites ever built. Their spotbeams are capable of delivering advanced voice and broadband data communications to mobile users via the BGAN service.
Inmarsat-4 F3 will complete Inmarsat’s next-generation global spot beam network. F-3 will provide broadband MSS service over the Pacific Ocean and the West coast of the United States, enabling voice and highspeed data using laptop-size terminals. Based on EADS Astrium’s Eurostar 3000 bus, the satellite will weigh approximately 6 metric tons at liftoff.
Worldspace, based in the Washington, DC, is the world’s only global media and entertainment company positioned to offer a satellite radio experience to consumers in more than 130 countries with five billion people, driving 300 million cars.
The Company’s two-satellite network, AfriStar and AsiaStar, broadcast digital-quality audio channels to people around the worldcovers two-thirds of the earth’s population with six beams.
Each beam is capable of delivering up to 80 channels of high quality digital audio and multimedia programming directly to WORLDSPACE satellite radios anytime and virtually anywhere in its coverage areas.
Worldspace is finalizing preparations to launch Europe’s first subscription-based mobile satellite radio and data service beginning with Italy in 2009, and followed by other European and Middle Eastern countries. Upon service launch, subscribers will have access to a wide range of exclusive content available in national languages, including commercial-free music as well as news, sports, talk and other entertainment content (40-50 channels at service maturity). WORLDSPACE also expects to offer unique data services including real-time traffic information and navigation for automobile commuters, weather forecasts, and personalized content such as music downloads directly from the satellite.
WORLDSPACE was instrumental in the development of the technology infrastructure used today by XM Satellite Radio.
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